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GeekWire purchased the IT Cloud Computing Conference (IC3) this week, completing a three year run that mirrored cloud industry growth. IC3, a DevOps and cloud training conference, was started before digital transformation became a thing. It’s remarkable how much has changed.

Prior to launching the conference, organizers met with CIOs at a cocktail event who were skeptical about cloud computing. One CIO said his bank would never use the cloud. Others weren’t sure what the cloud was. Another IT executive said his hospital was waiting for Microsoft to tell him what to do.

The first IC3 event in San Francisco attracted 250 attendees and generated nearly $200,000. It was a successful start that led to follow on conferences in San Jose and Seattle. IC3 recruited sponsors from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Chef, Puppet, IBM, Intel and HPE. It was a great run.

GeekWire is taking over at a good time. Microsoft stock hit an all-time high as the company demonstrated it could move license customers to Azure and subscription software. Amazon recorded its highest value yet after an analyst priced AWS at $200 billion. Cloud and DevOps are a $276 billion industry growing at 17% per year. Gartner says cloud will impact $1 trillion of IT spend by 2020. Very few CIOs are sitting on the sidelines now.

One cloud chapter ends and another begins. The GeekWire Cloud Technology Conference continues the IC3 mission June 7 and the IC3 team returns to their day jobs, providing PR and digital marketing to clients building the cloud future. The next CIO cocktail party will have a very different conversation.